1979 Lincoln Continental Mark V
Ray’s sleek black Lincoln Continental, today’s East Coaster of the Day, has been to Newfoundland and back twice.
The plush red interior was luxury at its finest 40 years ago. The 8-track player works like new but Ray fitted it with an adapter so he and wife, Sandy, can listen to those newfangled modern cassette tapes, too.
Opera windows, an automotive trend of the mid-1970s that lasted, according to some, much longer than it should have
Lincoln’s premium Mark series was produced primarily as a two-door coupe, starting with the first generation in 1956, the Mark II, through Mark VIII into 1998, and then discontinued.
The fourth generation, the Mark V, like Ray’s, sold for only three years (1977 to 1980), but turned out to be the best-selling generation of the Mark series. At 230 inches long, the Mark V is the largest two-door coupe ever sold by Ford Motor Company.
According to Ray, the gargantuan trunk can hold four large bodies or six smaller ones (🤣).
Ray’s Kijiji find, with a 400 ci-2V V8 engine, was originally purchased at Tusket Motors in Yarmouth by the owner of a local fisheries enterprise. He’d only put 29,000 kilometres on it before he passed away and left the car to his daughter.
Ray was on the lookout for a New Yorker but fell in love with this Continental instead. As far as Ray knows, it’s had a paint job and he’s installed a new water pump, a fuel pump, new carpet throughout, a voltage meter and a passenger side mirror.
